Uruguay: Holocaust memorial vandalized twice in a week

For the second time in five days, a Holocaust memorial in Montevideo has been vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti.

For the second time in five days, a Holocaust memorial in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo has been vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti minimizing the Holocaust.

Local authorities have launched an investigation, the Jewish Telegraph Agency reported.

“They have vandalized us again. What’s going on?” tweeted Carlos Varela, the mayor of the Punta Careras district of Montevideo, where the memorial is located.

“We call for sanity, tolerance and peace,” he wrote.

Vandals used black paint to write slurs, including: “The Holocaust of the Jewish people is the biggest lie in history,” “Only 300,000 Jews died from typhus” and “Gas chambers were a fraud.”

Unveiled in 1994, the memorial has been defaced several times in recent years by anti-Semitic vandalism. This time, however, was the most severe, with graffiti covering a large portion of the memorial, local newspaper El Pais reported.

“We repudiate the anti-Semitic graffiti with concepts that deny the Holocaust of the Jewish people, and with that we are hopeful and encouraged by the quick action of cleaning the site and launching a prompt investigation,” read a statement released by the Israelite Central Committee, the country’s umbrella Jewish organization.

By: Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org